Starcast Join the waitlist
The Next Five

The Next Five

Systems Rewritten: AI

Oct 6, 2026 · 43m

Coming soon to iPhone. Already have it? “Listen in Starcast” takes you straight there.

On this episode

About this episode

Supply and demand. The foundational backbone of market economies. And we’re in the AI era, where demand and supply is being rewritten. Behind this AI revolution, sits a monumental physical buildout and energy demand. Globally, data centre power consumption will double by 2030 toward 945 terawatt-hours, consuming more power than the entire nation of Japan. In some regions the strain is already visible: data centres accounted for more than a fifth of Ireland's national electricity consumption in 2022 and predicted to reach nearly a third this year. Stateside, in 2023, when less powerful models existed, roughly a quarter of electricity use in the US state of Virginia was sucked up by data…